Originally Posted by
Courtney Mil
Are you trying to use the height of the speaker as a means of judging the height of the aircraft? Without knowing the height of the camera, the height of the speaker and the relative distances between aircraft, speaker and camera, that it meaningless and, frankly, somewhat typical of trying to use YuoTube video to make out that something is way more dramatic than it really is.
Lucky that so many have turned out here again to solve the case without the need for any real evidence.
I was at Southport and witnessed the event. Unlike the following day when there was little cloud, the display was restricted by low cloud. I was some 60 or so yards to the left of the trajectory of the aircraft as it pulled out of the manoeuvre from the direction of the sea. I was with a friend, between us we have over 120 years of regularly attending airshows around the world.
Our immediate response to what we saw was that he was extremely lucky not to put the aircraft into the sea. Having avoided that the aircraft bust the crowd line before turning parallel to the sea and eventually climbing during which he was red carded. Our estimate of his maximum height over the crowd was around 150 to 175 feet though obviously we had no accurate measure other than trying to judge based on the heads of the crowd.
There were gasps from the crowd, our view was that he had overcooked it. On other forums people in the path of the aircraft, some seasoned airshow visitors, posted later that day and during the next day, that they were concerned and even momentarily scared.
The videos are not the best views. I have seen others not posted on the web and as they all focus on the aircraft there is little reference to the crowd or ground. I, my friend and many others watching with Mk1 eyeball from a reasonably short distance did have a reference. Had the aircraft no recovered and gained height before busting the crowd line, the result would have been carnage.
The Liverpool Echo photo is earlier in the display.